The Morning After: Tuesday, September 26th 2017

Steve Jackson's Sorcery conjured onto iOS next month

Steve Jackson's Sorcery is on the way to iOS next month from Inkle, a studio formed by ex-PlayStation designer Jon Ingold and industry veteren Joseph Humfrey, "specializing in interactive storytelling."

Steve Jackson's Sorcery is a version of a 1983 Fighting Fantasy gamebook, sort of a Choose Your Own Adventure RPG. The iOS version updates the formula with 3D maps, a touch-based swordfighting system, and graphics.

If you ask nicely, you can have some of Steve Jackson's Sorcery in May. He doesn't need all of it.

Gallery: Steve Jackson's Sorcery! (iOS) | 17 Photos

Coming in May: Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, an Immersive Narrative Game for iPhone and iPad Developer inkle's reimagining of renowned Fighting Fantasy gamebook is a dynamic handheld adventure that writes itself around players' choices

CAMBRIDGE, U.K. - April 23, 2013 - inkle, an independent developer of interactive narrative apps, will release their iPhone / iPad adaptation of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! on the App Store in May. Based on the Sorcery! instalments of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, Steve Jackson's Sorcery! for iPhone and iPad is an unparalleled narrative game that closely adapts to players' choices, with a story that quite literally writes itself while you play.

As a young hero determined to recover the powerful Crown of Kings, players choose which path to follow on an epic quest across the Shamutanti Hills. Along the way, you'll explore a beautifully illustrated world filled with memorable encounters, overcome vicious traps, and traverse a dangerous countryside littered with moral tests that can make or break a hero. Through it all, the narrative closely adapts to every action you take, with the AI using your decisions to write a story that will be uniquely different every time.

"We wanted to make something that brought the strange and wonderful world of Sorcery! to life, so we created a game that's always in flux. There are scores of locations to explore, and thousands of choices to make, and everything you do has the potential to change what happens next, right down to the words of the text. Even the combat sequences are written on the fly as you play," says Jon Ingold, inkle's creative director. "Sorcery! was a gamebook when we started, but now it's something entirely new. I don't think anyone's ever made a game like this before."

inkle and Steve Jackson's richly graphical interactive adventure goes way beyond what could exist in book form. The new game plays out across a gorgeous hand-drawn 3D map, with the player choosing their own route as they explore a massively "branchy" storyline. The game features a unique sword-fighting system designed for touch devices, an arsenal of almost 50 weird and wonderful magical spells, and gameplay that calls for decision-making and strategy at every turn.

"Sorcery! was by far the most ambitious Fighting Fantasy adventure I ever wrote. At the time, I got completely carried away in my ambition for the series," says author Steve Jackson. "Playing through this iOS version, it's obvious that inkle have been equally ambitious -- perhaps even more so. What they have created is nothing short of a whole new genre of interactive fiction. And I applaud them for it."